Faye and the Fandom of a Chinese Diva
2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 7; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/15405700903177552
ISSN1540-5710
Autores Tópico(s)Sports, Gender, and Society
ResumoAbstract This article explores the fans of Chinese Cantopop diva Faye Wong, a pop icon often expropriated to project a new Asian femininity. Unlike earlier Cantopop stars, Faye's values, images and songs are anchored by the presumption that she is independent, unconventional, and contentious. This is precisely how she is able to create and provide expression and aspiration to a middle-class female fandom that have to reconcile family roles with her independent and modern career image. This article examines the process by which fans subtly appropriate Faye's persona and engage in independent trajectories and various struggles against existing cultural norms and gendered family values. Using ethnographic methods and in-depth interviews over a six-year period, the author identifies the dilemmas and social contradictions that these fans face in Chinese communities. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This article was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Project no. CUHK4274/ 03H). Notes 1The focus of this article is on Faye's fans and fandom. For a focused discussion on the iconography of Faye, please refer to CitationFung and Curtin (2002). 2The author also did some follow-up interviews in 2008. 3Deng and Tang are the same Chinese character and the difference in English transition is only a difference in uses in the mainland China and Taiwan. 4However, what is different between Faye and Madonna is their degree of submissiveness and ideological imperatives. Whereas Madonna's sexual appeal may transgress the legal boundaries and possibly offend outraged moralists, Faye never transverses the social limit. Yet she is still able to cut across significant socially acceptable cultural boundaries. Her image is not seductive and is never erotic. Despite putting on see-through livery, fans' imaginaries rest largely on Faye's noncompromising and disinterested persona against the dictates of powerless passivity rather than on the realm of sexualization and objectification of the body (c.f. CitationTetzlaff, 1993, on the success of Madonna). 5To perpetuate any feminist thought, apart from an emancipation intent, fans should also "hold tightly to a sense of a commitment," as CitationMandziuk (1993, p. 183) argued.
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